


At the End of the Journey

by Enllyn



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Airports, First fanfic in like 2 years, Hilariously I struggled with text speak, M/M, Phichit appears in one line, Probably because I habitually type in full sentences without full stops, first ao3 post, i love all the characters, these two are just so cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 17:19:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8854066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enllyn/pseuds/Enllyn
Summary: From a headcanon on Tumblr, "Leo actually hates flying. He’d much rather stay home; he hates the airports, the security checkpoints, all of it. It’s the only part of skating he dislikes. Half the time, the only thing that gets him through the flight it the fact that Guang-Hong will be waiting for him when he gets to where he’s going."Basically why Leo hates airplanes with a passion.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this 15 days ago but I had to wait for my AO3 account to be created, then I went on holiday and formatting from the phone is difficult ><
> 
> This is the original headcanon: http://leoji-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/153791853991/headcanon-6

Leo was immensely grateful that his first competition for the Grand Prix was held in America. It meant that he would not have to deal with waking up at an irregular time to catch his flight, or getting stopped at airport security for having metal zippers on his pockets. He understood the need for tightened security, but it didn’t make getting an uncomfortable pat down any less irritating.

Although that was the moment that truly cemented Leo’s loathing for all things related to flying, the aversion to airplanes stemmed from a horrendous experience he had as a young boy. 

Every year, Leo and his family would take a trip to Mexico to visit his grandmother. They would go on what he now felt was arduous journey through the airport, but back then he had seen it as an adventure. To a child, the airport was like an enormous train station, with hundreds of people milling about, some rushing to catch their flight, others just waiting for their flight number to be called so that they could leave. 

When their flight was called, Leo jumped up from his seat in the waiting room and ran ahead, racing his younger sister to the boarding area. “Slow down,” his mother called after them, worried that they might trip and injure themselves. They paid no heed to her words, laughing and enjoying the rush of wind in his hair. 

Their family sat in two parallel rows in the aircraft, so Leo sat in the window seat, with his mother on his right and his elder sister in the seat after that. Even though he had seen the airplane taking off and gliding among the clouds several times, the sight never failed to amaze him. Sometimes he wished he could open up the windows and touch the clouds. Would they feel like cotton candy? Or would his hand just pass through them like nothing? 

Looking down from the sky, the realisation that the world was so much bigger than just his town was completely mind-blowing for him. Out in the world, there was so much he would never see, so many people he would never even know the names of. These were people of no consequence, they would never matter like his family did. 

By right, the people whom he saw on the airplane should have been of no consequence either, but there was this couple who had seared themselves into his memory. He would never know their names, but he would never forget their faces. Their faces, which were pressed up against each other in a passionate kiss outside the toilet, where they thought they could escape from the judgemental glares of the other passengers. They would have, too, if Leo had not needed to go to the toilet at that exact moment.

Stumbling across a couple making out at the age of eight was not something Leo had planned to do. Sure, he had seen his parents kissing before, but those were quick pecks on the cheek, a way to reaffirm their feelings. He wondered if some day he would be in that position, with someone who understood him so well that they would have no need for words.  _“It must be a wonderful feeling,"_ he thought, unlike what he felt upon witnessing this public nuisance of a couple. 

The real question was: What was he to do? Shove them aside and go to the toilet anyway? No, that would be rude and he doubted he could do it anyway.

Ask his parents for help? There was no point in doing the latter - His mother would start giving her opinions on ‘young people nowadays are so inconsiderate, when I was younger…’, and his father had managed to fall asleep on the four hour flight. 

He supposed that only left him with the last option - To ask them to move.

"Umm… excuse me,” he managed to say after ruminating for a good three minutes. “Could you please go somewhere else? Or at least move away from the door?" 

His words fell on deaf ears as the couple was too wrapped up with each other to even notice him. Leo coughed, but to no avail. They were completely absorbed in what looked like an attempt to suck each other’s face off. 

Someone moaned and Leo wondered if he could afford to not go to the toilet for the next hour. He thought about it for a while, but came to the conclusion that it was too risky since it would be another three hour drive to his grandmother’s house, and he did not trust the airport toilets. The couple’s hands began to roam under each other’s shirts, with no intent of stopping.

 _"This is it,"_ Leo thought.  _"This is when I see a scene that should be in an R-rated movie.”_

To his horror, the shirts started to come off. Leo turned around, his face paling, and walked back to his seat. The airport toilets were still more appealing. 

Leo’s family had to drag him to the airport in the years after that. “Don’t worry so much, it won’t happen,” his brother told him. “But it happened once, who’s to say it can’t happen again?” Leo refuted.

——- 

Between the waiting, the possibility of witnessing an inappropriate scene, and the unnecessarily sensitive security checks, airports and airplanes were two of Leo’s least favourite places.

Fortunately for him, Skate America was held in Chicago, which could be accessed by car even if it meant a rather long ride.. Leo would much rather sit in a car for a day than be in an airplane for two hours. Flying was just that torturous. 

He still got to stay at the hotel with the other skaters, meaning he could feel like he was in another country without actually needing to board a plane. The rooms were decent, with essential facilities but nothing too fancy. After all, they were not there to admire the hotels. 

Leo stood outside room 423, his hand poised to knock on the door, when the room door burst open.

“Woah, you almost hit me there Leo!” Guang-Hong exclaimed as he took a step back. 

“Well, as long as I don’t hit hard enough to make you lose any brain cells,” Leo laughed, tapping his fist lightly on the younger’s head. “It wouldn’t do to harm the fellow skaters now would it?" 

"Definitely not,” Guang-Hong nodded, trying to put on a serious face. 

“Come in, I think there’s some coffee." 

"Don’t we have to pay for that?" 

"Shh… don’t mention it." 

——- 

A month after Skate America came the Cup of China. There was no way out of the 14 hour flight to Beijing, at least until cars that could drive across oceans were invented. 

Leo checked his phone at the airport again - There was not much else to do, apart from observe the faces of other people bored out of their minds, and he was definitely not going to pay for an overpriced coffee to get a seat better than the rock hard plastic chairs in the waiting area. 

Guang-Hong: You’ll be fine~

Leo: Planes r terrible ><  
Airports r terrible  
Y do I do this to myself  

Guang-Hong: We can eat jianbing when u get here ^^ 

Leo: They r horrible 

Absolutely completely irrevocably horrible 

Leo: Yeah ok sounds great 

Guang-Hong: I think our rooms are near each other again haha 

Leo was about to reply, but at that moment, the announcement blared out, "United 851, now boarding seats 33E to 46G." 

Hence, he quickly typed out, "Plane’s here see u soon!” before joining the rest of the passengers jostling towards the exit. 

Guang-Hong: Okay~

——- 

Such a long flight meant that the arrival time was only a few hours after the departure time. It was just like taking a car ride, except the car was moving at several hundred miles per hour. Oh, and if you fell asleep, you would wake up halfway across the world in the next day. 

Thus it was no surprise that Leo suffered from jet lag when he landed in Beijing. Bleary-eyed from the lack of sleep, he tripped on his way to the conveyor belt and proceeded to take luggage that was not his. 

Leo’s coach snorted at his antics before stepping in to help get the bags to their rightful owners. It simply would not do to have someone else’s belongings, especially in a foreign country. 

Leo dozed off in the taxi and continued to be in a dazed state in the hotel reception area. His coach spoke to the staff members and handed him the keys to his room, telling him to go up first. 

Thus, Leo headed into the lift alone. Second floor, fifth floor, tenth floor… why did it stop? A sense of dread washed over him. What if the lift cords broke and he plummeted to his death? 

He shook his head to clear it of such thoughts. No, there was no use worrying about it, all he had to do was press the emergency bell and hope someone came to help him. Seeing as that the lights were still fully functional, it had not been a power cut, and that comforted him a little. It was not as though he would be trapped in a dark, metal prison with only recycled air to breathe. 

The five minutes in which Leo was in the lift felt like eternity, before he saw a pair of gloved hands pry open the doors of the lift. “Sorry, the lift’s completely stuck. We’ll have to get it serviced." 

Sighing, Leo dragged his luggage out of the broken lift and waited in the lobby for the other lift. It seemed to crawl up the floors, so Leo decided that it was more worth it to just climb up the stairs. It was only two floors anyway. 

Two floors was still two floors more than expected, and Leo had never been more glad to see a sign for the twelfth floor. 

He had barely put down his things when a knock came from his door. "Leo! I heard you were here already!" 

Leo opened his door and was promptly attacked by a brown-haired ball of excitement. "I’ve been waiting all day for you to fly in! Phichit said patience was a virtue but I-I just really missed you!" 

Hugging the slightly smaller boy, with a voice slightly muffled by the hair, Leo whispered "Me too." 

Airports and airplanes were a couple of Leo’s worst enemies. If he got to see Guang-Hong in person though, then it was completely worth it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow, I always end up using the line "Patience is a virtue..."  
> It took me way too long to check flight timings, and even then I'm not too sure which part of the USA Leo is actually from - If anyone could tell me that'd be great!
> 
> I really did get stopped at security for metal zips on my pockets once, I thought it was because of the tissue paper but it was the zips ><
> 
> Lines that I wanted to write but sounded absolutely ridiculous on hindsight:  
> "Metal zips? That was just paranoid.”  
> "This is when I see a scene that should be in an R-rated movie… Hey, if I see that scene, will that make me an adult already?“  
> "He had to resist burying his nose into Guang-Hong’s hair - It was a smell that could only be described as cute. Which was apt.”


End file.
